Terrorists ‘build secure VoIP over GPRS network’

Terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba has developed its own VoIP network that connects its members over GPRS networks, according to the Times of India.

UK and US authorities have both declared Lashkar-e-Taiba a proscribed terror organisation. The group’s aims include India ceding sovereignty over Kashmir. Members of the organisation participated in the 2008 attacks on Mumbai.

The VoIP network is frustrating India’s intelligence community, the report says, because it means they can no longer trace the group’s members as it is far harder to spy on than email or commercial VoIP services.

“Earlier, we could intercept conversations on phone or locate Lashkar cadres based on their IP addresses through their emails,” an intelligence source told the Times. “But now we’re finding it tough to gather intelligence because Lashkar men hold audio or video conferences using private VoIP.”

The network even has a name: Ibotel.

The report says Laskar-eTaiba recruited “technicians, engineers and information technology executives … intensify its operations across India.” Some of those recruits, the report suggests, developed Ibotel as the group sought more secure methods of communication. ®